THE RUNNERS'S ABC

Most of the runners tend to be trained through different ways that reach to their hands as from others trainers, friends, technical magazines, Internet ... Most of the times these exercises are standard and they don’t take into account the particular characteristics of each person.
Of course, these workouts usually work and the runners get an improvement as it happens with any fairly logical training plan. Just being disciplined and gradually increasing the sessions, we get a good evolution in our fitness and our records. But there is a lot of difference in the results between working out with a low elaborated training program and knowing what pace we must run at all times.
The latest trends in athletic training agree to act on three main areas: improving the economy of race, raise the anaerobic threshold and
increase VO2 max (maximum volume of oxygen).

Before we continue, here are some basic concepts for those who are not really into these topics:

FMH Frequency Maximum Heart is the highest number of beats per minute that can (or should) handle your heart. The easiest way of calculate it is using the formula "220-age" (for men) and "226-age" (for women). Here is more information on FMH.

Pulsimeters watch for measuring heart rate. It consists of a strip that is inserted into the chest and wirelessly transmits the information to a watch.

Anaerobic Aerobic a job is aerobic when done in the presence of oxygen, meaning that the oxygen we take is sufficient for the needs of
the moment (for example, walking).
On the other hand, anaerobic work takes place in the absence of oxygen; there is not enough oxygen, so the work may not be very durable.
Threshold Intensity Level located at the boundary between the aerobic and anaerobic. There are tests to determine this level, which is an individual value. In this strip are achieved the greatest progress.
Rhythms or intensities according to the intensity of the exercises are several areas of works or rhythms: R1 up to 60% of the FCM;
R2 60 to 70%; R3 70% to 80%; threshold of 85% to 90% VO2 max between 95-98%.

Economy when a person begins to run is often surprised to see how other runners go running and chatting at the same time with naturalness. These runners are exercising the economy career and this usually maintains a gentle pace career. The run economy is trained to teach the muscles to conserve energy and this is accomplished in two ways:

Running in a gentle pace. The pace should be soft, comfortable, but not exceeding slow because then there would be no improvement, only to burn some fat. It must be around 75% of the maximum heart rate (FCM).

Caring technique. We refer here to the run style, should not be made inappropriate gestures or movements.

The time which should dedicate to improve the economy of race must be longer than the one that will be used for the other two aspects (threshold and VO2), both in mileages, as in days.

Threshold The exercises at threshold pace produce a marked improvement. We must go at the faster speed than we can keep for a long time, not to thefullest, because we can not support this long time, nor slowly, but at a pace high that we can maintain.

The FMH must be between 85-90% and is due to make a weekly meeting. A valid exercise could be doing two sets of 2-3 km at this rate, with a
recovery of 5 minutes (2x2000 or 3000; R5 '). If you are preparing a half marathon you can do 3 sets of 4-5 km, with the corresponding recoveries (3x4000 or 5000; R5 ') or include these sessions in a long-running (for example, 15 km including 2x2000). And if your next goal is the marathon you can make longer series. The breaks between sets can be made in time of 5 minutes, reducing the pace to recover or until we have gone down to 120-130 beats per minute.

VO2 max. The pace of work in this area is very high, so get ready to "suffer" a little, and do not do it if you are beginner, running
less than six months, or have recently returned to train, because you need a prior base to absorb these charges.
It would look strange but the maximum volume of oxygen depends not only on your lungs or your respiratory system, but it depends more on the efficiency of the muscles and their ability to burn oxygen, which is a quality specific to each person.
But even though is an innate ability, this can be improved, we can increase the amount of oxygen that your body can carry, therefore we must exercise running at a similar pace to what we would do in a race for ten minutes, not faster; would be training between 95-98% of FCM one day and if you make weekly career considerate session VO2 max.
The exercises are sets done on several distances, for example, from 3 to 6 sets of 800 meters, with 2 minutes recovery between sets (3-6x800;
R2 "). You can also make short series, for example, 8 sets of 400 meters with 1 minute recovery (8x400; R1 ') or 10-12 of 100 meters with 30 seconds of recovery (10-12x100; R30'').
We have to be careful with not exceeding the limits, because we could fall into a overtraining or an injury more easily than what we could think.

The following table can guide you on how fast you need to run on the basis of your time in the race 10 km.: